Life’s been busy! Wait, I think it’s not been calm since I had my son 5 years ago. We’re still house hunting. I’m still quilting. I’m still gaming. I’m still podcasting. I’m still twittering. Facebooking. Attempting Google Plus’ing on a regular basis. Nothing much new to really report. I felt like my blog was getting a little bare since I hadn’t posted since November about a project that I haven’t worked on since that month. December steamrolled my family and I. January will hopefully be kinder, so far it’s been alright. I’ve got Kiddo’s quilt basted. Fabrics picked out for Honeybun’s. A new baby is due in the extended family in June so I’ve got another to plan, assemble, and quilt before then. At least I’ve got a new shiny sewing machine to do it on! More mundane posts to come as life continues.

If you’re still reading the blog after a few years, you’ll know that I was a big proponent of making sure that the LOTRO lorebook was accurate and filled in properly. The project never really got off the ground. In that spirit, I’ve pulled myself into another big overhaul. I was trying to find armors on the official wiki, just pictures of armor pieces nothing off the wall really. Well, there aren’t any. Nothing like the wonderfulgalleries on the Guild Wars wiki. Maybe the wiki editors will jump in behind me and say this is a good idea (more than likely they’ll never even look in my direction or undo all my edits). I’m populating a list of all the armors I can find and then I’ll start making, capturing and inputting all the screenshots to the wiki. I’ll be lucky if I can get this off the ground with how many armors there are, let alone the variations between genders and races. There’s a post on the wiki project page but I don’t know how to collaborate with people when I’m terrible at the wiki language…

If you want to help me with this, that’d be awesome. Get in touch with me!

ArenaNet announced via their favorite release sites that there will be new armor and items coming with Lost Shores. There’s a new functionality as well with “infusions” which may or may not be the same thing as infusing from Guild Wars. It also looks like they’re adding another crafting tier or at least a new set of things to harvest and process. The new armors and items (weapons maybe) will have a new quality level, so above Exotic will be now Ascended. GW2Hub presumes “these [crafting tiers/recipes] will be focused on the ascended quality as well” and I tend to agree.

Now that we’ve got the (presumed) facts, let’s get to my commentary. Of course that’s why you’re here or maybe I blackmailed you into reading my blog. Either way…

I’m not in exotics, well, no I take it back. I have a pair of gloves that dropped from Claw of Jormag that happened to be better than what I had on. Is it a set that I like or prefer? No. It’s got decent stats and it isn’t repulsive. After all, I play a Ranger and all we get are trench coats. Or really skimpy things. If I had spent the time, money and/or materials to get a full set of exotics I would be really worried right now. We don’t know all the details of them but, come on, it’s been 3 months! Why do we need a new item tier of rarity? It just makes everyone feel like they’ve wasted their time on the gear grind they were promised was not going to be in Guild Wars 2. It all depends on how these new armors turn out this weekend.

Be sure to tune in to our livestreamed podcast tonight for more observations about the Lost Shores preview tonight at 7:30pm PST!

Some fair warning: If you haven’t played GW2 or don’t want any light spoilers regarding where some mobs are, zone names, or my opinions regarding some lieutenant/champion fights ignore this post. Making a cut for the front page. Also, this isn’t a review or anything just some thoughts, so please ignore the run-on sentences and other ridiculous grammar errors.

It’s a question that’s been posited to me every few days since the last beta event and seeing wonderful things like this makes me want to firm up on my choices.

This time around I really enjoyed playing as a Norn and it certainly wouldn’t be hard for me to RP as one. Boisterous, boastful, and cacophonous.

I was a little let down with the Sylvari I was sure that I would be playing it as my main but the way the cloth armors looked on them… well, it was disappointing. I’d have to be a transmutation stone junkie if I were to play as one. Which, I unfortunately just found out is going to make playing as an Ele very disappointing. Mainly because of all the gratuitous panty shots (yes, I’m one of *those* people). I was hoping to bundle her up in some pretty yet modest medium armor sets.

I think I’ll probably end up as a human Elementalist. The human race-based skills are nice and seemed to partner up with the class-based skills well.

But I really don’t want to play as a human and a big human

I don’t really have much interest in playing as a Charr. I can’t really explain it other than it’s just not my personality. Same with Asura.

I don’t really go for authentic naming but I think I could really go for it. Maybe it’s time for Cookie to go away.

So let’s try to nail it down. Norn Ranger for sure. Rabbit spirit animal for RP purposes, maybe Raven for character creation? Cleverness and trickery combined with speed and stealth sounds like a great Norn Ranger. Ostara Ravenborn!

Cloth armor be damned! I really do want to play as Sylvari. Sylvari Elementalist. Cycle of Dawn for sure, well it’s either dawn or night. Either sounds perfectly appealing to me. Amareye! No need for a surname, all Sylvari are related.

What do you think guys? I won’t be able to reserve the names anymore so don’t steal them >.<

I’m going to go in order based on screenshots and what I remember in my sleep deprived state, this is more of a run through of playing rather than a comment on the particular build we were privy to. That being said there will be some opinions on some details and tons of screenshots. I apologize in that I didn’t check the screenshots until last night and didn’t know how to take High-res ones until mid-Saturday. Tonight (Monday 4/30) we’ll be livestreaming our (@gwreporter) beta impressions for our podcast episode. Join us at approximately 11:30EST/8:30PST in our chat room. Continue reading →

The long and short of what I’ve been doing is Guild Wars with a smidge of SWTOR and LoTRO thrown in.

My LDoA character is nearly 12. Which is pretty good considering my attention span at previous attempts (I used to get to maybe 8 or 9). Doing dailies is hard enough but I’m getting to where I average about three times a week. Not terrible!

I need 8 more minipets to get 8/8 on my devotion monument. So that’s cool. I’ve been begging guildies and allies for their extras and buying up whatever I can on the cheap. I had a line on a mini Shiro but it got pulled for the owner’s guildie

I’ve been pretty good about knocking out Nightfall HM missions. It’s also the only campaign I don’t have protector for. Dzagonur Bastion is the only mission I really truly cannot seem to get masters on. I hit a rough spot with Pogahn Passage but an ally popped in and helped me sort it out. Not enough heals when I’m running around with discordway anymore. Now that I look at that pvx build I feel stupid because that’s not even close to what my discord necros were running. So that’s fun. Using builds from a year ago without checking the community rating isn’t really smart, okay?

As soon as I get my minipets solid I’ll be selling 90% of them as dedicated. Really, who needs 50 minipets? Not me. It’s that or I buy the two storage panes I don’t have already. Or yet another character slot; 12 is never enough (/facepalm). After that I’ll be farming for hero armor upgrades. A LOT. I had to take a break from vanquishing, that s*#@ is frustrating as s@&!. Yes, those are both the same word, okay? Deal with it. It’s probably been frustrating because of my crap discord builds ‘-_-

So why am I spending so much time in Guild Wars? I’ve got a fever and the only solution is beta! Not really. I mean, I’m excited but I also have social obligations during that weekend. Another reason I’ve been in game a lot is that I can’t sew without sewing machine needles. I’ve got a project that needs to be done before July so I’m stuck waiting until we’ve got some extra cash… I just remembered I have a little cash on my paypal >.< It took me not sewing for the past three weeks and blogging about it to remember. GREAT! Welp, now I’ve got to go to JoAnn’s this weekend too! And JoAnn’s is next to PeiWei, so I’ll want fake Japanese food and that’s just expensive. DANG IT! Sewing makes me want expensive food.

LoTRO failed to pull me in. For a game that has dx11 and was released 2 years after Guild Wars it’s got some pretty terrible graphics. Or maybe I’m just over the game. You know I have a post still in my drafts comprehensively comparing the two games. Never felt confident enough to hit publish. I have nearly 40 blog drafts. I logged in to take advantage of the anniversary celebration stuff. Mostly to see if I could go back to it to keep me busy before GW2 release. Nope. I even played with my friend Jack. It holds pretty much no interest. Having half my current quests being “locked” and needing to pay 5g to unlock my house just makes me feel hopeless about ever wanting to play again. My minstrel will probably forever remain at 65 and in Enedwaith ready to take on the baddies, while I sit at the keyboard and wonder what the heck happened to my skills. Yet again.

SWTOR is dangerous. Seriously. I’m a level 20 Chiss Bounty Hunter. I don’t know how that happened. Well, okay, I thought I’d do Ben a favor and make a Chiss so he could make a legacy Chiss Jedi. Then all of a sudden I’d played for a week, pretty much nonstop, and my house was a complete mess. I have to put on a kitchen timer when I do play so I’m not sitting there for 4 hours or more at a stretch. That’s why SWTOR is dangerous.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone in-game to Guild Wars without doing something that I find relatively boring (vanquishing, skill capping, etc.). Last night I was watching Benj play through presearing with a gaming buddy. I was corralling Honeybun and getting upset with Kiddo the whole time. I realized this morning that I needed something fun to work on in-game. After reading about Ranni rerolling too I took the plunge and bought another character slot (because 11 isn’t enough) and made a ranger. After all, I’ll need to get Legendary Defender of Ascalon for my hall of monuments.
I played for three hours, did quests, opened up all the towns and got to level six. I’m actually looking forward to the next time I get to play.
Oh yeah, collector’s edition of Guild Wars 2 was detailed. Now I’m going to need to figure out how to switch my preorder from 3 years ago over to CE. Now where was that receipt…

If you don’t play LOTRO or Guild Wars you probably won’t understand this and he probably will be upset that I’m blogging it. We had an epic conversation. I’ve edited out little bits to make it flow better but otherwise it’s intact.

Celeste
any ideas for ask an asuran?

Benj
pets.. i wanna know about pets and minis
are there going to be some new and unique pets for rangers?
and will there be more minis in GW2

Celeste
hrm, there’s not a lot of info on that
we can make assumptions and discuss
good idea

Benj
Will the menagerie make a comeback in GW2?
will it be more personalized this time around?
and most importantly.. can I ride a flamingo or warthog this time?

Celeste
no mounts confirmed

Benj
im not asking for a mount..

Celeste
they’ve said we won’t be driving anything either
riding it would make a mount

Benj
I’m asking for an emote that lets me ride my pet in town

Celeste
LOL doubtful.

Benj
an asuran on a cute piglet would be awesome
instead of their golums
next week talk about the awesomeness of owning your own area for your kinship in GW1 and why the hell we dont have housing

Celeste
LOL
no housing at release
*at release!*

Benj
cause i want a pen in the back of my house to corral my pets
not a friggin zoo

Celeste
LOL

Benj
i mean it takes FOREVER to get to where you want to go for a pet
i mean REALLY
cant i just keep my flamingos penned up?
and wouldnt it be cool if you had a crocodile tamed and when you came home it had eaten your flamingos cause you were silly enough to pen them together?

Celeste
LOL they’d never do that
too many combinations

Benj
i mean COMEON!
its The SIMS GW Edition

Benj
we get keeps for our kinship.. pets to tame.. costumes and masks for holidays and special events.. how much harder is it to make a house with a wardrobe and rideable pets?!

Celeste
I changed kinship to guild and i’m tweeting that.

Benj
oops
i prolly shouldve tweeted that
silly lotro/gw mashup

Celeste
lol

Benj
also.. related to LOTRO
what does it take to stroll down middle earth in the rain and get a friggin umbrella!?

Celeste
LMFAO

Benj
my armor will polly rust at that rate

Celeste
unless you’re a medium or light class

Benj
should make swords, axes, and maces become damaged over time in the rain.. haveta repair more often during the rainy season
i doubt GW will have mounts
charrs ride scorpions..
i dont think charr and horses would even get along
asurans ride golums that are already slowish
yous have to put a golum on a horse and thats just redundant
and might kill the horse

Celeste
ok, golem or gollum?

(The following message could not be delivered to all recipients: ok, golem or gollum?) OutLoud: NOOOOOOOOOO!

Benj
and I imagine the plant people have something against herbivores…..

And then he had to get back to work, but I thought it was worth recording how awesome and weird my husband is.